LATEST NEWS

Last year's indie sensation Beasts of the Southern Wild gave director Benh Zeitlin some much deserved attention with an original story and some stellar performances from a cast of non-actors. The film landed a Best Picture nomination and a Best Director nod for Zeitlin's directorial debut, and we've been wondering just what the filmmaker will do next. While some directors tend to move into high profile film territory after indie success, Zeitlin just seems to be getting weirder. In a profile of 20 young, provoking filmmakers from The New York Times, Zeitlin talks about his next developing film and describes the strange story. Read on!

This film will also feature a young girl in the lead role, but we'll let Zeitlin explain the story:

"The new film is about a young girl who gets kidnapped onto a hidden ecosystem where a tribal war is raging over a form of pollen that breaks the relationship between aging and time. It follows a friendship-love story-adventure of her and a joyous, reckless, pleasure-mongering young boy as they swirl in and out of youth and as the ecosystem around them spirals toward destruction. We’re working on it all day every day, but as all psychotic adventures go, you know where your destination is but not how long it’s going to take to get there."

Whoa! That sounds completely off the wall, and has the makings of a stellar sci-fi coming-of-age film that we've never seen before. While we're excited about the project, as Zeitlin notes there at the end, he has no idea how long it's going to take to finish, and doesn't give any idea of when the project will shoot or anything like that. What made Beasts of the Southern Wild so amazing was the grounded, heartfelt story placed in a surreal world. If Zeitlin can deliver another story like that, then we could be looking at another awards worthy entry in the filmmaker's burgeoning career.